S3 E17 Blood and Retribution: The St. Brice's Day Massacre and Viking Vengeance

In 1002 as the dawn of the Middle Ages touched the shores of England, trouble threatened a fragile peace that hung over the country. In the land where the whispers of the wind carried tales of dense forests, vast moorlands, and fertile fields, Anglo-Saxon Villagers, in small and close-knit villages that dotted the countryside, began to speak of their deep seated discontent at the crown for their handling of the Danes who lived in the Dane law.  The rhythm of daily life was deeply tied to the land, life was a constant struggle to extract sustenance from the earth. The fields in the south and east, rich and bountiful, promised harvests that could stave off hunger, while the rugged north and west demanded resilience from those who herded sheep and cattle. 

           The lay of the land had been irrevocably altered in the 9th century by the foundation of the Danelaw, an area of northern and eastern England where Danish rule was the law of the land. From London to Chester, the influence of the Norse settlers was palpable. Yorkshire, East Anglia, and the Five Boroughs—Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Stamford—were strongholds of Danish customs and governance.  the Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures mingled, creating a unique tapestry of traditions and laws and culminating in mass conversions from Nordic pagan beliefs into Christianity.

              At the heart of the Anglo-Saxon land King Æthelred II ruled. known as Æthelred the Unready His throne was less a seat of power and more a precarious perch atop a kingdom beset by challenges. The Viking menace loomed large, with fierce warriors from across the sea seeking to carve out their own dominions. The king’s reach extended only as far as the loyalty of his local earls, men who governed vast swathes of land, collected taxes, upheld the law, and commanded military might in his name. The realm was a patchwork of alliances and feuds, where the king’s word held sway only with the support of these powerful men.

                The relationship between Æthelred’s England and the Danelaw was a delicate balance of peace and tension. Periods of uneasy truce were punctuated by bursts of conflict, as the specter of Viking raids loomed large. In his efforts to bring the Danelaw into the fold, Æthelred often resorted to paying Danegeld, hefty sums meant to buy temporary peace from the Viking chieftains. Yet, these payments were but a bandage over a festering wound, as the regions under Danish influence maintained a semblance of independence, resisting full integration into the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

          As the people and the nobility cried for a response to the threat posses by the Norseman, Æthelred responded but with one decision he doomed England to the wrath of Scandinavia.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Music
• 0:12 Opening Description
• 3:59 Hello And Welcome
• 6:28 The Danes And The English History
• 12:38 Taking A Little Break
• 13:25 The Saint Brice's Day Massacre
• 18:08 The Danes Revenge
• 20:47 Sweyn Attacks
• 25:20 Thank You For Listening
• 27:49 End Music

Transcript

S3 E17 Blood and Retribution: The St. Brice's Day Massacre and Viking Vengeance

In 1002 as the dawn of the Middle Ages touched the shores of England, trouble threatened a fragile peace that hung over the country. In the land where the whispers of the wind carried tales of dense forests, vast moorlands, and fertile fields, Anglo-Saxon Villagers, in small and close-knit villages that dotted the countryside, began to speak of their deep seated discontent at the crown for their handling of the Danes who lived in the Dane law.  The rhythm of daily life was deeply tied to the land, life was a constant struggle to extract sustenance from the earth. The fields in the south and east, rich and bountiful, promised harvests that could stave off hunger, while the rugged north and west demanded resilience from those who herded sheep and cattle. 

           The lay of the land had been irrevocably altered in the 9th century by the foundation of the Danelaw, an area of northern and eastern England where Danish rule was the law of the land. From London to Chester, the influence of the Norse settlers was palpable. Yorkshire, East Anglia, and the Five Boroughs—Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Stamford—were strongholds of Danish customs and governance.  the Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures mingled, creating a unique tapestry of traditions and laws and culminating in mass conversions from Nordic pagan beliefs into Christianity.

              At the heart of the Anglo-Saxon land King Æthelred II ruled. known as Æthelred the Unready His throne was less a seat of power and more a precarious perch atop a kingdom beset by challenges. The Viking menace loomed large, with fierce warriors from across the sea seeking to carve out their own dominions. The king’s reach extended only as far as the loyalty of his local earls, men who governed vast swathes of land, collected taxes, upheld the law, and commanded military might in his name. The realm was a patchwork of alliances and feuds, where the king’s word held sway only with the support of these powerful men.

                The relationship between Æthelred’s England and the Danelaw was a delicate balance of peace and tension. Periods of uneasy truce were punctuated by bursts of conflict, as the specter of Viking raids loomed large. In his efforts to bring the Danelaw into the fold, Æthelred often resorted to paying Danegeld, hefty sums meant to buy temporary peace from the Viking chieftains. Yet, these payments were but a bandage over a festering wound, as the regions under Danish influence maintained a semblance of independence, resisting full integration into the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

          As the people and the nobility cried for a response to the threat posses by the Norseman, Æthelred responded but with one decision he doomed England to the wrath of Scandinavia. 

Hi everyone and welcome back to the dark history podcast where we explore the darkest parts of human history. hope everyone is well I’m Rob your host as always. Welcome to season 3 episode 17 Blood and Retribution: The St. Brice's Day Massacre and Viking Vengeance**. In today's episode, we're diving into the chaotic mess that was England in the early 11th century. At this time, England was fractured into several competing kingdoms, struggling to maintain stability amidst constant turmoil. Viking raiders from Scandinavia continued to wreak havoc, raiding and pillaging with little resistance. King Æthelred II of England, faced with these relentless attacks, opted to pay the Danes living in the Danelaw hefty tributes, known as Danegeld, rather than engaging them in battle. This strategy of appeasement, however, was only a temporary fix.

        In 1002, the situation took a dramatic turn when Æthelred ordered the St. Brice's Day Massacre, aiming to exterminate every Dane living in England. This decision, driven by fear and frustration, had catastrophic consequences. Instead of securing his kingdom, Æthelred’s actions provoked a fierce response from the Danes, leading to even more violent invasions and cementing his reputation as an ineffectual ruler. The fallout from this massacre would shape the future of England, as the kingdom grappled with the aftermath of such a drastic and brutal policy. I hope everyone’s following along because when we get down in the trenches of it all it becomes incredibly confusing. Before we start I just want to tell you about this week's podcast of the episode the swerve podcast but We will have a sneak peak of their show later on in the episode.

So without further ado please turn off those lights sit back and relax next to the fire for more dark history.

Before diving into the story, it's important to understand how England got into this state in the year 1002. Repeated Viking raids had savaged the lands of England since the first attack in 792AD. The attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne, one of the holiest places in England, marked the Vikings out as warriors who feared nobody, not even the wrath of God. To Christian England, they seemed fearsome and some believed they were sent as a punishment from God. Their more earthly intentions soon became apparent as they stripped the northern cities of gold and precious objects, and began to take land and settle.

  At the start of Middle Ages, England was a fractured land, divided into three distinct parts. In the north-east lay Northumbria, while the rest of England stretched from the north-west to the south-west and along the southern coast. Nestled in the middle was the Danelaw, a region under Danish control, established by the Treaty of Cheltenham in 878 following the invasion of the Great Heathen Army, led by the formidable Halfdan Ragnarsson, Ivar the Boneless and Guthrum in 865. The Danish leader of the Vikings, Guthrum, made a peace settlement with king Alfred of Wessex that included the condition that Guthrum and his followers become Christian. Guthrum and Alfred divided the kingdoms of England between them, and the eastern part was known as the Danelaw where the Danes ruled with their own laws. Many Danes settled in the kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumbria. The establishment of the Danelaw and the death of Eric Bloodaxe, the Viking King of Northumbria, in 954 signalled the withdrawal of Viking forces and a cessation of violence for 25 years. However in 980 the raiders returned and began a new onslaught on port towns.

                           King Æthelred the Unready, or the Ill-Advised, who had ascended to the throne at the tender age of twelve in 978, following the murder of his step-brother at Corfe on the orders of Æthelred’s own mother. His reign was fraught with challenges and instability. Despite a semblance of peace within England’s borders, the threat of Viking raids from Scandinavia loomed large. In 991, the Norwegian leader Olaf Tryggvason secured a decisive victory at the Battle of Maldon in Essex, only to return in 993 to plunder the north-east. The following year, he joined forces with Swein Forkbeard, the Danish king, to launch an attack on London, which ultimately failed. Undeterred, Olaf turned his fury on the south-east, prompting Æthelred to buy him off with a hefty sum of Danegeld and here we are talking an exorbitant amount, 24 thousand pieces of gold, enough to make Olaf the king of Norway.

          Unlike his predecessors, Æthelred rarely led his troops into battle, a decision that left his regime struggling to find an effective military leader. He sought to bolster England’s defenses by strengthening the navy and paying Danegeld to deter Viking aggressions. Aethelred earned his ironic nickname through a series of unexpected and complicated decisions. One such decision was paying Olaf to become king of Norway, which indirectly forced Olaf's ally, Swaine Forkbeard, to return to Denmark to deal with the new political landscape. This agreement also stipulated that Olaf become Aethelred's ally and leave England. Additionally, Aethelred took on a number of Viking mercenaries, who became his confidants.

                 Moreover, Aethelred forged a crucial agreement with Duke Richard of Normandy, ensuring mutual non-support for each other's enemies. However, in 1001, Aethelred's title of "the Unready" seemed fitting once more. When Swaine returned to England after quelling unrest in Scandinavia, Aethelred paid him off again. This time, the Viking mercenaries Aethelred had previously hired from Olaf switched sides, joining Swaine's army and betraying Aethelred. I really hope everyone is following along. In the spring of 1002, Æthelred solidified this alliance with the Normans by marrying Emma, Duke Richard’s daughter, a formidable and influential woman in her own right. She helped to unite Danes and Anglo-Saxons and had a lasting impact on English history, however their marriage did not have the immediate impact that Aethelred had hoped for. In his haste for a solution to the problem, he decided to use an upcoming holy day to assert his authority.

In

        The St. Brice's Day massacre occurred on 13 November 1002 on the orders of King Æthelred. He had been told that the Danes in England would ‘faithlessly take his life, and then all his councillors and then possess his kingdom’.

Were going to take a little break here but while you wait here is a sneak peak of today's podcast of the episode The Swerve podcast kiki

Now to sort of break the allure of the story, the St Brice massacre has been built up by later middle-aged Chroniclers as, what we would call today as an ethnic cleansing, but was more hyperbole and wasn't what really happened. the Dane law was never touched, the mercenaries that Æthelred had originally taken from Olaf were the real target, but his edict did spill out to the board town of oxford. Now with a very small amount of artistic licence.

                  On the cold morning of November 13, 1002, the streets of Oxford and other parts of England were eerily quiet, yet brimming with tension. King Æthelred the Unready had decreed that all Danes in the kingdom should be slain, a desperate attempt to quell the Viking invasions that had been ravaging his land. This decree, known as the St. Brice’s Day Massacre, was rooted in fear and desperation, and would lead to a day soaked in blood and betrayal.

                   In the heart of Oxford, the Danish settlers were oblivious to the storm brewing around them. Among them was Thorkell, a blacksmith who had lived in peace with his English neighbors for years. The Danes in England had become an integral part of society, blending in through marriages, trade, and shared customs. Despite their Viking heritage, many had long abandoned the life of raiding for one of farming and craftsmanship.

                Danes weee working their jobs when English soldiers assembling near their towns. At first, they thought nothing of it; soldiers often patrolled the streets. But as they observed their tense faces and whispered conversations, a sense of unease began to grow.

            Meanwhile, inside a nearby church, women and children gathered for morning prayers. Among them were the Danish women. They prayed for peace and prosperity, unaware of the deadly decree that hung over them.

                   The order had come from King Æthelred himself, who was haunted by visions of Viking ships and tales of brutal raids. His advisors had convinced him that the Danes within England’s borders were a fifth column, a threat from within. Believing that drastic measures were necessary to secure his kingdom, Æthelred issued the fatal edict.

                 As the church bells tolled, signaling the end of the morning service, the soldiers made their move. As the collectives hearts pounded they saw them march towards the church. The men dropped their tools and ran, shouting a warning, but their voice was drowned out by the soldiers’ battle cries.

            The massacre was swift and brutal. The soldiers stormed into homes, dragged people into the streets, and cut them down. The Danes fought desperately to reach their family, but the chaos was overwhelming. The church, meant to be a sanctuary, became a slaughterhouse as the soldiers showed no mercy, even to women and children.

    People trying to shield their children from the violence. People trying to fight through the soldiers, using their tools as a weapon, but ultimately they were outnumbered..

                      In the aftermath, the streets of Oxford were littered with the bodies of the slain. The massacre had spread across the kingdom, leaving thousands of Danes dead. King Æthelred believed he had secured his throne, but the massacre only deepened the divide between the English and the Danes.

                 The Danes that survived, their heart hardened by grief and rage, took their familys and fled into the wilderness, swearing vengeance against those who had betrayed his family. As the years passed, tales of the St. Brice’s Day Massacre spread, a grim reminder of the consequences of fear and hatred. 

           King Æthelred’s edict had been meant to protect his kingdom, but it only sowed seeds of bitterness and bloodshed. The massacre did not end the Viking threat; instead, it spurred further violence and reprisals.

It took some time but eventually, the tales of the Norseman dead reached the kings of Scandinavia. Gunhilde, the sister of the Danish King, found herself caught in the deadly game of politics and power. As the legend goes, she was held hostage by Aethelred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, during a turbulent period when tensions between the English and the Danes were simmering dangerously close to a boil. Her fate took a tragic turn with the delivery of Aethelred’s notorious edict, a decree that led to a brutal massacre aimed at the Danes living in England. Amidst the chaos and bloodshed, Gunhilde was allegedly killed, her life extinguished by the very king who had kept her captive. Yet, her remains were never found, leaving a haunting void in the historical record and casting a shadow of mystery over her final moments.

          Gunhilde’s husband, Pallig, played a pivotal role in this dark chapter. Initially a trusted servant of Aethelred, Pallig’s allegiance shifted as he betrayed the king and joined forces with the marauding raiders who laid waste to Anglo-Saxon settlements. This act of treachery did not go unnoticed and fueled a deep sense of betrayal and paranoia within Aethelred. Some historians speculate that the king’s edict, which called for the extermination of Danes within his realm, was not solely a strategic move but also a personal vendetta against Pallig for his desertion.

        The deaths of Gunhilde and Pallig resonated far beyond their immediate circle, rippling through the corridors of power in Denmark. The Danish King, upon hearing of his sister’s tragic end and his brother-in-law’s betrayal and subsequent death, was consumed by grief and rage. These personal losses were more than just familial tragedies; they became a rallying cry for vengeance. In 1003, the Danish King made a decisive move, marshaling his forces to invade England. This invasion was not merely a quest for land or power but a deeply personal mission to avenge the deaths of Gunhilde and Pallig, and to punish Aethelred for his ruthless actions.

Sweyn Forkbeards attacks on England were of an unprecedented scale, his forces pillaging and plundering with a ferocity that struck terror into the hearts of the populace. Villages were razed, treasures looted, and entire communities decimated. The devastation was so immense that King Aethelred, in a desperate bid to provide respite for his people, resorted once again to paying off the Danes. However, the temporary peace was a fragile illusion, and the raids continued sporadically, maintaining a constant state of fear and instability within the kingdom.

                       By 1013, Sweyn was ready to launch a more decisive campaign. He landed at Sandwich in modern-day Kent with an even larger and more determined force. This time, his invasion was marked by an unrelenting onslaught. Town after town fell to his army as he carved a path of destruction through England. The terrified locals, unable to withstand his might, submitted to his forces, hoping to avoid further bloodshed.

             As Sweyn marched towards London, he encountered stiffer resistance. The defense of the city was led by King Aethelred and his formidable ally, Thorkell the Tall, a legendary Viking warrior who had switched sides to support the English king. At first, they managed to hold their ground against Sweyn’s forces. The streets of London echoed with the clash of swords and the cries of battle, as defenders fought valiantly to protect their city.

                  However, the prolonged siege began to take its toll. The people of London, already weary and frightened, started to fear the severe reprisals that Sweyn’s vengeance would bring if they continued to resist. The spirit of defiance began to falter, and disillusionment with their beleaguered king grew. Seeing no alternative and desperate to preserve what remained of their lives and property, the English earls reluctantly declared Sweyn as their ruler.

        With the tide turned against him, Aethelred fled into exile. He first sought refuge on the Isle of Wight, but realizing the precariousness of his situation, he soon crossed the sea to Normandy. There, he found a measure of safety, but his kingdom was now under the control of his Danish adversary.

                                 Sweyn Forkbeard was proclaimed King of England on Christmas Day in 1013, a momentous event that signaled the culmination of his long campaign. However, his triumph was short-lived. Just weeks later, on February 3rd, 1014, Sweyn died suddenly at his capital in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. The exact cause of his death remains shrouded in mystery. One account describes a tragic fall from his horse, while another suggests he succumbed to a stroke, or apoplexy.

      Sweyn's body was initially buried in England, but later, it was transported to Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark, where he was laid to rest among his ancestors. Despite the brevity of his reign, Sweyn Forkbeard’s impact on England was profound. His invasion and the subsequent upheaval reshaped the landscape of power and left a legacy of turmoil and conflict.

                 In the aftermath of Sweyn’s death, England faced a period of uncertainty. Aethelred, from his exile in Normandy, would soon be called upon to return and reclaim his throne. The cycle of war and peace, betrayal and allegiance, would continue to define the tumultuous relationship between England and the Viking invaders, echoing through the annals of history.

Thank you for listening to this dark episode. Now as I said with in the episode a very little amount of artistic licence was taken here, the chroniclers of later times embellished the massacre, we sort of know this because  archaeological evidence has shown far fewer people where killed in the actual violence on St Brice's day. 

   As for the legend of Sweain Flokbeards sister, well you may have to take this with a pinch of salt. The Danes did invade under the king of Denmark, they did conquer England, but the reasoning for this is lost to myth and legend. We do know that on the the death of Swaine Folkbeard, who died the king of Norway, Denmark and England, Aethelred returned from exile and ruled until his death in 1016. Likewise, the throne of Norway passed to the natives. However, Sweyn’s son, Cnut, would later revive his father’s empire. Cnut ruled England much longer than his father, giving him more time to impress the British with what he had done. His deeds were recorded by English writers of the time, and hence, he is known today as ‘Cnut the Great’. 

             Eventually the Danes would be vanquished at the battle of Hasting in 1066, when William the Conquerer defeated Anglo-saxon/ Danish  king Harold Godwinson and the rest as they say is history.

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